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What’s the point if the anime’s main character is already at the top of the food chain? Aren’t most anime about growth and overcoming overwhelming odds as the underdog? Most anime with overpowered main characters can quickly become predictable. Hence, they often don’t hold a candle to the more standard anime storytelling. Still, some special anime with overpowered main characters beg to differ. They have their twists to the formula that make the whole season (or several seasons) worth watching– even if you know the main character will always win.
10. Overlord (2015)
Ainz Ooal Gown
The big twist here is that Ainz Ooal Gown from Overlord is a villain. It’s like Death Note but in a fantasy Isekai world. A hardcore gamer somehow manages to wake up inside his favorite RPG and in the shoes of his max-level character nonetheless! So, being the most powerful character in his newfound world, he decides to take control.
Ainz Ooal Gown practically has the full suite of superhero abilities (superstrength, mobility, durability, etc.) and on top of that, he’s also a master wizard and necromancer. What makes it interesting to watch despite Ainz’s sure victory is how the anime somehow explains Ainz’s “overpoweredness” through the lens of an RPG gamer’s min-maxer and theory-crafter.
9. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2018)
Rimuru Tempest
Don’t expect too much Isekai in this list– otherwise, the whole list might as well be about Isekai anime. But I do have to give recognition to The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Its protagonist, Rimuru Tempest, was an office worker who died in the modern world and got reincarnated as a, well, slime.
Except slimes in his new fantasy world proved to be quite versatile. Rimuru soon leveraged his new slime form’s absorption powers to assimilate more powerful beings until he eventually became the leader of a mixed-race army. As far as Isekai anime with overpowered characters go, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is one of the most well-developed.
8. Assassination Classroom (2015)
Koro-sensei
Assassination Classroom is about an omnipotent “alien” (Koro-sensei) who chose to become a high-school teacher. Apart from math, science, and history, however, he’s also teaching his class to assassinate him. If they can’t assassinate their teacher by the time they graduate, he’ll destroy the world.
Easy enough, right? Too bad their alien teacher is stronger than the usual Marvel superhero. In fact, there’s literally no being that poses any kind of threat to Koro-sensei. He’s bulletproof, can move faster than any aircraft, and he could also practically crown himself as a god. Therein lies the challenge of trying to assassinate him.
7. Trigun (1998)
Vash the Stampede
It’s an oldie but a goodie. Trigun is the gun-toting Spaghetti Western pacifist counterpart to Rurouni Kenshin. The main character is Vash the Stampede, a gunman with a huge bounty on his head. He also has the power to destroy celestial bodies in a world where most warriors can’t survive regular bullets.
As you get to know him further per episode, however, you begin to realize that Vash didn’t exactly deserve his wanted status. He couldn’t hurt a fly with his naturally kind demeanor. It’s just that Vash was a product of a violent experiment that turned him into a walking superweapon. Now, he has to live and suffer the life he didn’t choose while avoiding fights that he can easily win.
6. Lycoris Recoil (2022)
Chisato
Speaking of gunmen, Lycoris Recoil introduced two of the cutest among them in 2022. It’s an anime about orphaned teenage girls who are trained to be assassins. The best among them is, of course, one of the main characters, Chisato. This blonde gunslinger has quite the overpowered reflexes in a world where all the other people are merely ordinary.
Chisato can dodge bullets simply by calculating their trajectory in milliseconds. This allows her to perform some rather impossible feats, mostly taking on multiple armed assailants while smiling and joking around. That ought to make the premise of high-school girls taking down international terror organizations more believable.
5. Solo Leveling (2024)
Sung Jin-Woo
Solo Leveling is among the latest power fantasy anime and even its overpowered main character didn’t diminish its popularity one bit. Solo Leveling takes place in a modern fantasy world where the whole of Earth is transformed into an MMORPG playground where some people are chosen to be Hunters and are assigned pre-determined levels and roles.
Then, along comes Sung Jin-Woo as the main character, who, through a twist of fate, was solely gifted with the ability to level up. That practically made Sung Jin-Woo’s power ceiling nigh infinite in a setting where everyone is stuck in their assigned levels. Pretty soon, you start realizing that there’s nothing Sung Jin-Woo can’t defeat; it’s just that he sometimes picks fights while under-leveled.
4. The Eminence in Shadow (2022)
Cid Kagenou
Cid (which is a really nice name), is not unlike Sung Jin-Woo. He’s the main character in The Eminence in Shadow, but the twist of this Isekai anime is that Cid is already one of the most powerful in his own world but decides to stay low and feign mediocrity to surprise his opponents.
His goal is to become a powerful antihero from the shadows, chasing neither renown nor the typical heroic deeds. Apart from being a master tactician and strategist, Cid is also a genius magic user and an expert swordsman. He has the full roster of all the anime fantasy skills at his disposal and most of his problems per episode involve picking which power to show off.
3. Hellsing Ultimate (2006)
Alucard
It’s Dracula in an anime, of course, he’d be overpowered. Hellsing Ultimate is about Alucard (Dracula) and a short chapter in his eternal life. He has to protect England from a former Nazi official who seeks to unleash his Nazi zombies in order to wage war with the vampire lord. There’s also a rookie woman in tow standing in as a blank slate for viewer self-insert.
In any case, Alucard is immortal, brutal, and can utilize all manners of blood magic. He also has superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, durability, and endurance, as expected of a vampire lord. If that’s not enough, Alucard also has hundreds of years of knowledge and experience. You already know the outcome if someone picks a fight with him, but it’s fun to see this vampire rip them to shreds anyway.
2. One Punch Man (2015)
Saitama
Apart from Overlord, another 2015 anime that vastly popularized the overpowered main character trope is none other than One Punch Man. It’s supposed to be just a comedy and satire for Shonen anime but the action scenes turned out to be exceptional. It’s about a self-made superhero who trained to become the strongest and his whole schtick is defeating enemies with just one punch.
That man is none other than Saitama, and he lives up to his name. Make no mistake, unlike other overpowered main characters here, Saitama is a Great White in a sea of sharks. He’s more overpowered than the other overpowered beings in his anime universe, so much so, that he often gets pitted with Shonen mainstays like Goku or even Naruto.
1. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (2023)
Frieren
If you really want the best anime with an overpowered main character — one that managed to become a masterpiece despite the trope — then Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End takes the cake. It’s about a silver-haired elven mage who defeated the Demon King with her companions and is retreading her journey’s steps while pondering her long life.
Since she’s more than 1,000 years old, Frieren is quite possibly the most powerful mage in her world. And while nothing can stand in her way, be it demons or genius wizards, Frieren makes the journey worth watching; it’s a slow-burn and meditative adventure about the nature of existence and humanity. Frieren is merely the over-leveled main character who finished the main quest and is pursuing the side quests in that story.
